Saturday, December 31, 2011

We went to Ottawa to visit my family for Christmas. There was no snow here in Toronto when we left but Ottawa was nice and white. The kids had so much fun and are impatiently waiting a large snow fall here at home.

I wish I could take credit for these wonderful photos but I can't. My husband took these. :)

Monday, December 12, 2011

I've finished my first successful sample of a new item for 2012: an insulated eco lunch tote! This one is specifically geared towards children but I am considering making them for adults as well. I have been struggling with making them as affordable as possible but the cost of materials is quite high for these. For this sample I used some wonderful new fabrics by Khristian A Howell from her collection called "The Woodlands". (How adorable is that acorn print?)

A bit about these lunch totes:

they are machine washable (all fabrics have been pre-washed and pre-shrunk)

they are insulated

they measure 11 inches wide at the top and 9 inches wide at the bottom x 9 inches high x 5 inches deep

they are lined with a water resistant ripstop nylon

they have a small pocket on each side between the straps

the straps are long enough for children to carry over their shoulder

More pictures:

As you can see, there is plenty of room inside. I could fit a juice box and more items other than these 3 containers. I will also be making coordinating snack bags and sandwich bags, also machine washable.

I'm pretty excited about these! I have so many great fabrics that I washed in preparation for making these lunch totes. I have 2 other new projects that I am working on but I am still in the design stages. :)

Monday, December 5, 2011

I admit it - I am now addicted to making these adorable doll outfits. I have just finished 3 new outfits.
I received the "Meet the Gang" fabrics and they did not disappoint! I love the colours! So I decided to make this pretty peasant dress with matching shoes:

And then I made this adorable outfit with a criss cross top and some matching ruffle pants. The pattern called for a velcro closure but in my experience the velcro gets full of lint and stops working after a while so I used my cow girl snaps instead.

And lastly, I made this adorable footed pyjama in the same Riley Blake flannels as 2 sets of pyjamas Zoe owns. She will be tickled pink! (I used one of the dolls I have for sale to model these)

All I have left to make is the tote to carry everything and most importantly, her doll! (I am so anxious to finish that I am considering not waiting for the pale grey cotton I ordered for the doll and using a pale brown or a tan instead. )

Sunday, December 4, 2011

My Etsy holiday sales were a bit slower than I expected this year - which is bad but also great because I can devote more time to making gifts for my family.

I have purchased a few patterns from Bit of Whimsy Dolls and I plan on making my daughter the Rose doll and most of the clothing patterns. So far I have made the romper and the summer dress with matching shoes. I made a few changes to the patterns because my daughter wouldn't be able to tie the bows so everything has elastics instead.

For the shoe pattern, I substituted the ribbon ties with a piece of 1/4 inch wide elastic that is approximately 3 1/4 inches long. It worked fantastically and the shoes are fairly easy to slip on and off.

The neck opening for both the romper and the summer dress normally closes with a ribbon as well but I used the same elastic as the shoes. I did find the outfits looked a little plain without the pretty ribbon so I've sewn a little ribbon bow to the front of each outfit. It is difficult to see from the photos but the arm openings are on each side near the top.

Romper

Summer Dress

I am waiting on a pale grey cotton to make the bunny doll and I also plan on making her a tote or some kind of case to hold all of the little outfits. Hopefully this will encourage her to keep everything in one place instead of spreading them all over the house like she usually does. :)